


Power of Suggestion

by lit103



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/F, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-08
Updated: 2016-05-08
Packaged: 2018-06-07 04:52:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6785995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lit103/pseuds/lit103
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve isn’t as obvious as Tony. But he’s dropped hints. One time he spent two hours reading “Top 100 Gay Movies” lists on the Internet, then asked Tony to watch <i>Top Hat</i> with him one night while they were hanging out in HQ—because it’s the one of the only movies on these lists he’s seen, and the butler in it is definitely gay, and also Ginger Rogers. Tony got about three minutes into it, then proposed they watch <i>The Fast and the Furious</i> instead, and then a bunch of the cadets came bursting in and piled onto the couches to watch too, and Steve slipped out quietly when Tony wasn’t looking because what was even the point anymore.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Power of Suggestion

**Author's Note:**

> Set like a few months after AOU.

“We could, like, turn the TV on, or something,” Natasha says.

Wanda groans. “But that would mean one of us would have to get up.”

“Oh.” Natasha says, after a moment. “Yeah. Right.”

*

The thing that all of the Avengers know by now but none of them would in a million years admit is that they’re, well, bored. The lack of new megalomaniacs to fight is a running joke at the morning meeting. “So we’re _sure_ there’s not an alien invasion? Sentient super-strong AI? Rogue(ishly handsome) younger brother? Anything?!”

“So, what do you do when you’re bored?” Wanda asks now. “Besides sitting around staring at a turned-off TV.”

“Well, you have to promise not to tell anyone,” Natasha says. “But sometimes... I embroider. I taught myself to chain stitch last week. Shut up!” she says, when Wanda smirks at her. “I’d like to see you try it. So what do you do when you’re bored?”

“Well...” Wanda grins. “Okay, fine. Sometimes...” She leans forward, lowering her voice to a whisper, even though they’re the only ones in the room. “Sometimes I take a peek into people’s minds.”

“Anything interesting?”

Wanda grins wickedly. “Where to begin?

“It’s not like you think,” she explains. “I can’t always control it, especially when I’m unconscious. Sometimes I dream other people’s dreams...”

“What kind of dreams?”

Wanda shrugs. “Nothing particularly interesting. The cadets mostly dream about home. Hawkeye dreams about his family. Fury doesn’t dream, as far as know. It’s all very... chaste. Except this one time...” Wanda leans forward, eyes sparkling wickedly. “I dreamed I was _having sex with Tony Stark_.”

“Are you sure that wasn’t, like, _your_ dream?”

Wanda makes a face. “Ew. No. I don’t exactly swing... that way.”

“The Stark way? Or the men way?”

Wanda makes a face again. “Both.”

 _Hmmm. Interesting._ “So whose dream was it?!”

Wanda flops back onto the couch. “Well, Steve, obviously.”

“Yes!” Natasha sits bolt upright, punching the air. “I knew it!”

“You mean—you didn’t know they were together?”

“You didn’t know they’re _not_ together?”

Wanda frowns. “They’re not? I guess he thinks about Tony so much, I just assumed... They’re really not?”

“They’re really not. But they want to be. I’ve been saying so for years.”

Wanda gets this wicked look in her eyes that Natasha likes. Natasha likes it a lot.

“I can do something about that,” she says.

“Hold on. Is this... ethical? Or legal?”

“Which?”

“Both!”

“Let’s not get into the legality of—” Wanda gestures around her “—any of this. Even Steve tries not to think about that too much. As for the ethics... I can’t make people see things that aren’t already there. Why don’t we try an experiment? Come on, Natasha. You know you want to. Weren’t you just saying how bored you are? Nothing unethical. I won’t make him do anything. I’ll just... show him what’s already there. If it’s nothing...” She shrugs. “Then nothing’s what he’ll see. But if it’s not...”

 *

Steve’s trying to join up, for the fifteenth time. Except this time is different. This interviewer has been trained to spot homosexuals—she can do it in under three minutes, she says, tossing her long red hair, and she’s never been wrong. Have you ever had any sexual experiences with Tony Stark, she asks, and Steve says no, and she says have you ever _wanted_ to, and Steve says no, and she says you’re lying, and Steve says you’re using your powers, that’s not fair, and she says I don’t need to use my powers to tell that you’re lying, and she steps toward him, except she’s not a  _she_ anymore, she’s Tony—Tony, who climbs on top of him without a word, sliding one warm strong hand around to the back of Steve’s head and the heel of the other down the front of Steve’s pants and parting Steve’s lips with his tongue...

“Wait,” Steve says, pulling away, and Tony says “What,” and Steve says “God, no, nothing,” but then one frantic miunte later he gasps “No, really, wait” and Tony says “ _What_ ” and Steve tries to get up and “That interviewer, where is she, I need to go find her and change my answer, I need to tell her the truth,” and Tony grins and says “No need,” but he’s not Tony anymore, he’s the interviewer, file folder in hand. She makes a tick mark with her pencil, closes the folder with a snap, and climbs off Steve’s lap. “Thank you for your honesty, Mr. Rogers,” she says. “You’ll set a fine example for the other cadets.”

“W-wait, _what_?” Steve says. “You’re _accepting_ me? Why?”

The interviewer flips open her file folder again. “‘Have you ever wanted to?’” she reads. “‘No.’” She snaps the folder closed. “We can’t have our cadets lying to us.” She says this like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “Honesty is what we value above all else. All we ever wanted was for you to tell the truth.”

Steve wakes up gasping, the bedclothes tangled around him, harder than he can remember being in months.

 *

He’s been doing so well at repressing this stuff lately—ever since he dropped that super obvious hint to Tony after the whole Ultron thing about leaving his heterosexuality buried in the ice and Tony either didn’t pick up on it (which Steve finds hard to believe) or did and wanted to let him down easy by not letting him down at all...

The thing is, Tony definitely likes men as well as women. He played up liking women for a while, before he met Steve, which was very Old Tony. Very Arms Dealer Tony. New Tony—Stark Relief Foundation Tony—is super obvious about liking men, too. New Tony donates money to gay rights organizations and leaves the checks lying around where anyone can see them. (Probably to brag about the size of his bank account, or his philanthropy budget, or his dick, or all three.) New Tony picks up dudes right in front of the other Avengers. Sometimes he makes bets with them about how long it will take him to seduce a guy. Steve’s never seen him lose.

Steve isn’t as obvious as Tony. But he’s dropped hints. One time he spent two hours reading “Top 100 Gay Movies” lists on the Internet, then asked Tony to watch _Top Hat_ with him one night while they were hanging out in HQ—because it’s the one of the only movies on these lists he’s seen, and the butler in it is definitely gay, and also Ginger Rogers. Tony got about three minutes into it, then proposed they watch _The Fast and the Furious_ instead, and then a bunch of the cadets came bursting in and piled onto the couches to watch too, and Steve slipped out quietly when Tony wasn’t looking because what was even the point anymore.

 _What_ is _the point?_ he wonders now. Tony’s ignored all his hints, just like he ignored the “heterosexuality on ice” one. Tony definitely likes dudes, but after years of blatantly obvious hints Steve was forced to conclude that Tony just doesn’t like _him_. Not that way.

That’s not even what’s bothering Steve now. He thought he’d come to terms with that fact; what’s bothering him is that he obviously hasn’t.

 *

Steve can’t go back to sleep, so he goes on an early super-long super-hard run (he loses count on his fiftieth lap around the facility), then takes an ice-cold shower, but it doesn’t really help. He catches a glimpse of himself in a window and he looks like hell; his shirt’s on backwards, and there are bags under his eyes. He passes Natasha walking down the hall and she says “Sleep well?” with a wink and he whirls around, about to call out, but stops himself when she continues down the hall without turning around.

 _You’re being paranoid_ , Steve tells himself. He looks tired—that’s what she’s picking up on, nothing more. There’s no way she could know about the dream. There’s no way anyone could know—especially not Tony—and gosh darn it he’s going to keep it that way.

Steve rubs his eyes. Maybe it’s the boredom that’s triggering this. Training the cadets is fulfilling and fun, but it’s been over a year now; maybe he’s getting a little too comfortable. Maybe that’s why these thoughts are coming back. He just needs to keep busy, that’s all. There’s this new training program he’s been thinking about for months—now would be the perfect time to start implementing it.

 *

“What was in that dream you gave Steve?!” Natasha asks Wanda when she sees her later that day. “He looks like hell!”

“In the good way or the bad way?”

“There’s a good way to look like hell?”

“That’s kind of my entire aesthetic,” Wanda says. “I don’t know what was in the dream. I planted the seed, but what grew from it is up to Steve. I could find out, but... you know.” She waves her hand dismissively. “The whole ethics thing.”

“But Tony was definitely in it.”

Wanda nods. “One of the cadets is named Tony, too, and I yelled his name across the dining room this morning when Steve was getting lunch—you know, to check—and Steve jumped so badly he dropped a ladleful of mashed potatoes on the floor.” She grins like a shark. “Tony was definitely in it.”

*

Wanda sends Steve a dream per week for the next month. “He’s going well,” she reports back to Natasha after the fourth one. “But he’s so... upright.”  
“You mean uptight?”

“No,” Wanda says, chewing her lip thoughtfully. “I mean... moral. He’s stopped trying to repress his feelings for Tony, but these days all he thinks about is Pepper. She was in his dreams the other night, crying and asking why he was doing this to her...” She makes a face. “So melodramatic. I don’t know how Tony stands it. But we’ve got to do something about her. Steve won’t start anything with Tony while Tony’s with her.”

“She’s not like that in real life, you know,” Natasha says. “I’ve met her. She’s nice. But anyway, don’t worry.” She winks at Wanda. “I’m on it.”

 *

Natasha goes and spends the weekend with Pepper. She never tells Wanda exactly what she does while she’s over there, but the day she gets back, Pepper and Tony break up. It’s all over the news.

Wanda leaves copies of tabloids lying around everywhere, where Steve is sure to see them.

“Well done,” she says to Natasha, and Natasha looks modest and says, “Child’s play. That relationship’s been dead for years; I was just helping her bury it.”

“She’s too good for him.”

“Steve’s too good for him."

“Yeah, but try telling that to Steve.”

“So we’re really going to do this, then?” Natasha asks. Wanda nods.

So Wanda sends Steve one last dream.

 *

“Get undressed,” Tony says, so Steve takes off his newest suit, the one Tony designed for him, the one that’s pretty much the coolest thing he’s ever worn, super-comfortable and so safe it almost takes the fun out of his job and finds his old one underneath it, and then an even older one underneath that, and then the uniform he wore before he was Cap, and the clothes he wore to the recruiting office underneath that... And under those, nothing.

He looks up at Tony.

“What do we do now?”

Tony grins.

“We live,” he says.

 *

Now all they need to do is get Steve and Tony in the same room.

Wanda and Natasha debate telling Tony that there’s been some kind of accident with Steve (“Like what—his deltoids are sore from too many pull-ups or something?” “No but think about it; Tony would come tearing up the Taconic Parkway or whatever at 100 miles an hour and show up with like six speeding tickets going guys, where’s Steve, what happened to him, is he okay?! and then when he found out Steve was fine he’d be like oh the speeding wasn’t about _Steve_ , I didn’t even know anything had _happened_ with Steve, I’m just seeing your text now, Natasha, I was just really excited to see you all!”) but in the end they decide on a reunion party because it’s simpler and more fun.

*

So they have a party at the new facility. And it _is_ fun. It’s been a long winter, so the party’s outside, and Wanda strings these fairy lights up everywhere, between the trees, so the place looks magical.

Natasha gets there early and stands a little awkwardly by the bar, a beer in her hand, looking around. Finally, she sees Wanda, coming down the lawn toward her, and she looks... good. Really good. She went full on with the black eyeliner for the evening and she has this flowy black dress with super-thin straps on and her hair is swirling around her in a suspiciously telekinetic way... Ever since she really started embracing the witchy (aka “looking like hell in a good way”) thing, there’s something darkly sexy about her, but the sparkle’s also starting to come back into her eyes—the sparkle that only used to be there when she looked at her brother. Heads are definitely turning as she crosses the grass, heading straight for Natasha.

“All right,” she says, hooking her arm through Natasha’s. “What’s the plan?”

“Well, if we’ve played our cards right, the rest should take care of itself,” Natasha says. “Pepper’s out of the picture, and you gave Steve the dream last night, right?”

Wanda’s lips curve in a wicked grin. “Oh, did I ever.” She still hasn’t unhooked her arm from Natasha’s.

Natasha swallows. “Okay,” she says. “Then they should be able to take it from here.”

“If you say so. But, just in case, I do have a backup plan. But we’re definitely not going to need it.”

They definitely need it.

* 

Steve stands awkwardly in the middle of the lawn, holding a beer in both hands. Tony’s all the way across the lawn, and he hasn’t looked at Steve once. Steve sighs. He must have blown it—scared Tony off with all his clumsy hints, and now Tony’s avoiding him.

So Steve avoids him back. It doesn’t take long for Wanda and Natasha to notice. Natasha’s had a couple of beers by now and Wanda looks really, _really_ good in that dress and she needs a distraction _stat_ before she does something really dumb.

“What are we going to do?” she asks Wanda, and Wanda says “Don’t worry. I have a backup plan, remember?”

Wanda tells Steve that a child skinned its knee in the generator room sand won’t stop crying and needs to be saved by Captain America (“Wait, what child?” Steve asks, brow furrowing worriedly. “Who brought their children here? Is that responsible parenting? And why did they let them into the _generator room_?”) Then she turns off the Christmas lights with a flick of her finger and a wink to Natasha and tells Tony that the generator is broken and they need him to fix it (“You’re really going to make me do handyman chores?” he asks. “During a party?!”) and then Tony walks into the generator room to see Steve already there, looking confused, and Tony says “Huh.”

“Hey,” Steve says, not looking at him. “Guess the kid’s okay after all?”

“Kid? What kid?”

“Natasha said there was a hurt kid in here...”

“Wanda said the generator was broken... but it looks like someone just turned it off.” He flicks the switch. There’s a muffled cheer from the direction of the party as the Christmas lights come back on. "Easiest mission ever," Tony says. 

Steve shoves his hands in his pockets, looking awkward. There is a silence. Then both of them start talking at once. Then they fall silent. Then they both go for the door at the same time and find that it’s locked. They stare at each other. And then they both start talking again and Tony says “Oh my God enough with this already” and then he says “Sorry for taking the Lord’s name in vain” and crosses his arms and says “Actually, no, I’m not sorry at all. You’re avoiding me. Why are you avoiding me?”

“What! No!” Steve yelps. “ _You’ve_ been avoiding _me_! Don’t get me wrong, I get why, I was probably coming on way too strong and made you uncomfortable. I’m sorry, okay? I haven’t had a lot of practice dating in the current _century_ —”

“Wait a minute— _what_?” Tony yells. “Coming on too strong? In what universe were you coming on at all??!”

“Oh come on. I dropped so many hints,” Steve says. “There’s no way you didn’t pick up on them. That thing about leaving my heterosexuality frozen in the ice was practically me asking for your hand in marriage.”

“That thing about what?”

“What I said after the thing with Ultron!”

“That was about your _heterosexuality_?!”

“What else could it have been about?”

“Um, anything? If you thought I was going to leave the woman I’d been with for eight years because of some vague reference to your heterosexuality being _frozen in ice_ —”

“I wasn’t about to make a move on you when you were with a woman you’d been with for _eight years_. I was trying to be subtle. Remember the time I asked you to watch _Top Hat_ with me?”

“What does _Top Hat_ have to do with anything?”

“It’s gay! I’m gay! I figured you’d put two and two together. But you wanted to watch _The Fast and the Furious_ instead!”

“Um, have you seen _The Fast and the Furious_? It’s like the gayest movie on earth.”

“Huh,” Steve says. “It wasn’t on any of the lists I found on the Internet.”

Tony winks. “It’s all about the subtext, baby.”

“Will you guys just shut up and kiss already?!” Natasha and Wanda yell. So Steve and Tony do.

*

They all end up in the living room, watching _The Fast and the Furious_ and Tony’s like “See?!” and Steve’s like “Yeah, yeah, I see,” and slings a sleepy arm around Tony’s shoulders like it’s no big deal and the thing is, it really isn’t. All the guests have gone home by now. Hawkeye’s kids (and their parents) are curled up on one of the couches, fast asleep. Wanda and Natasha are on one couch, and Steve and Tony are on the other, and Wanda and Natasha pretend to be so absorbed in the movie that they don’t notice Steve and Tony leaving, don’t notice Tony pushing Steve up against the wall and kissing him before they’re even two steps down the hall.

“God, just think about it,” Tony murmurs between kisses, “we might have gone our whole lives without figuring this out,” and Steve says “Speak for yourself, I figured it out a long time ago” and Tony’s like “Um, excuse me, _I_ figured it out way before you,” and they keep on arguing the whole way down the hall, until Wanda and Natasha can’t hear them anymore.

They high five. Then Wanda leans in—eyeliner all smudged, one strap of her dress slipping down her arm—and murmurs (softly, so as not to wake the kids), “What now, Natasha? Who are we going to matchmake next?”

Natasha grins. “I have a pretty good idea,” she says.

_The End._


End file.
